A new grade of silicon carbide has been developed with properties that make it very attractive for a variety of applications in precision optical structures. Its microstructural homogeneity makes it capable of accepting an optical finish with subnanometer surface roughness. Its strength and fracture toughness, on a bulk scale, exceed all previous silicon carbide materials. This hot-pressed silicon carbide can be produced in single blocks up to 50 cm square and up to 20 cm thick. Two bonding techniques have been developed for fusing large segments of hot pressed silicon carbide together into a large monolith for constructing large optical structures without using a metallic braze. Bonding structure and bonding strength are discussed.